Charlotte hotel occupancy rate rises

Charlotte’s hotel occupancy rate rose in August to 58.5 percent, up 8 percentage points from August 2009, the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority said today.

If the upward trend continues, 2010 will be a better year for Charlotte hotels than last year, CRVA said.

Charlotte year-to-date hotel occupancy is 58.3 percent, up from 52.1 percent by the same time last year.

CRVA said hotel occupancy is also rising nationally and in North Carolina. State year-to-date occupancy is up 6.2 percent to 54.5 percent and 5 percent in the U.S. to 58.8 percent.

Following 18 months of decline, the average daily rate in Charlotte also rose for the second month in a row to $76.62 from $75.87 in August 2009. According to CRVA, the last time Charlotte saw two straight months of year-over-year ADR growth was from August to September of 2008.

But the year-to-date average daily rate is down to $78.36 compared with $80.43 by the same time last year.

While hotel occupancy appears to be gaining strength, definite bookings at the Charlotte Convention Center continue to decline since 2008 when there were 30 bookings. Last year it dropped to 23 bookings. There are 24 bookings this year.